There’s something about boats. Or should that be ships? Cram the
marketing community aboard an ocean-going vessel for a few days and
those who aren’t seasick will start to turn a little stir crazy. As one
marketing director said this week: ’I’m sure the Oriana is very nice but
I never go on these things because you can’t get off.’ Not unless you’re
a good swimmer, of course.
As it happens, a small band of hapless ITV sales executives attending
the Marketing Forum on the Oriana were almost invited to display their
prowess in this department. Things turned rather ugly during one of the
sessions - and, if there had been any planks to hand, the ITV contingent
might have walked.
Mark Horgan, the marketing director of McVitie’s UK, led the charge.
Television airtime inflation was unbearably high, he argued. ITV was to
blame. ITV should be punished. Advertisers, under the aegis of the
Incorporated Society of British Advertisers, should organise a partial
boycott of the network. Horgan said: ’I challenge ISBA to drive change
at ITV. Let’s get the top five spenders who are ISBA members to reduce
their spend.’
The change Horgan refers to is ITV audience performance, a topic that
has infuriated big-spending TV advertisers for the past few years. Now,
if the militant tendency has its way, things could start getting very
rough.
Is it likely? Advertising is where competition between rival companies
finds its most intense form of expression. Can they be persuaded to
indulge in the marketing equivalent of playing football in no man’s
land? John Hooper, the director-general of ISBA, who contributed to the
Oriana debate, summed up the pitfalls: ’If one of you pulls out of (an
ITV) region, another will grab the airtime.’
But threats continue to fly. Are some advertisers serious about this, or
have they spent too much time messing about in boats? And, whatever the
agenda, should this be an ISBA matter?
Bob Wootton, director of media services at ISBA, chooses his words
carefully: ’It’s not ISBA’s role to call for a boycott but we are
certainly here to help if there was a move in that direction.’ Wootton
argues that advertisers would not seek to inflict major damage - merely
send the right signals.
’Advertisers have become very concerned that they have been unable to
make their views heard - and it would be unwise to underestimate the
strength of feeling there is. A boycott is not a siege - which I agree
would be extremely damaging and in no-one’s interest. A boycott would be
localised. Advertisers have never done this before and that alone would
send an important signal to the market. But the spark that lights the
fire can’t come from ISBA.’
Where will the spark come from then? Many big spending advertisers
contacted by Campaign this week refused to comment, other than saying
that they were slightly mystified by the whole episode. Nigel
Brotherton, the communications manager for Volkswagen Group, certainly
won’t be leading the rush to man the barricades. He comments: ’As a car
advertiser, I’m aware that I can be accused of hypocrisy when I say I’m
as upset as anyone about airtime inflation - in our market, lack of
audience is a factor, but so is the fact that we and our competitors are
spending ever-increasing amounts of money on television advertising. ITV
should get a focus and a viable product to stack up against the BBC - at
the moment, any new channel that comes along hurts ITV and no-one else.
Why should that be?’
Brotherton admits a boycott might be a token gesture. He adds: ’If there
was an industry initiative I would probably fall into line, but it
certainly won’t be something I’ll be active in organising. I think it’s
extremely sad that advertisers have to make threats to get ITV to
realise there’s a problem. We’re all sick of ITV people telling us that
everything is all right. It isn’t. They have to start reading the
signals. Soon it won’t be facing a boycott, it will be facing the fact
that the market has decided that ITV isn’t viable. When that happens we
won’t need ISBA to tell us to move our money out. By then it will be too
late for ITV. I’m already close to looking seriously at alternative
media strategies.’
Martin Bowley, the managing director of Carlton UK Sales, says that he
is disappointed by the stance adopted by some advertisers. ’On Monday
you saw at ITV 98 real and constructive evidence that it has been
listening to its customers. We announced the arrival of our new chief
executive, Richard Eyre, our new programme director, David Liddiment,
and the appointment of a marketing director.’ Bowley also points out
that TV inflation in general, and on ITV is particular, is lower than
most people think. (The figures are 5 per cent and 6 per cent
respectively.) ’I implore anyone who has a vague perception of media
inflation simply to check the facts,’ he says.
But many in the TV market believe that this is much ado about
nothing.
Tony Kenyon, the chief executive of the Negotiation Centre, is sceptical
about boycott calls: ’There’s a not a cat in hell’s chance of this
happening. If someone thinks that ITV is too expensive, they are
entitled to spend their money elsewhere or find a media buying company
that can buy better.’ He points out that there can be no strategic gains
from a boycott - the threat merely indicates the level of bad feeling
that has built up between ITV and advertisers.
He adds: ’If 10 per cent of advertisers decide not to spend their money
on ITV one month, it makes that month 10 per cent cheaper - but it
doesn’t make the next month 10 per cent cheaper. If my experience in
these matters is any good, they’ll all want to spend the money the next
month, making it 10 per cent more expensive and nullifying the whole
exercise. Clearly, the issue of inflation is not one that we should
ignore, but the arbitrary withdrawal of funds is no solution. There are
other pressures ISBA could more profitably bring to bear. But the fact
is that if advertisers could afford not to be on air, they wouldn’t be
there in the first place.’
